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8/30/2007

Ack...I've once again, suddenly gotten behind in updating here and reading your blogs that entertain me so much. My reader is listing 3-10 unread entries from my favorites. Considering that I have to work tomorrow (my normal day off...boo!) and Monday (a "holiday" for most of you), it doesn't look like I'll be catching up anytime soon. Don't miss me too much. Ha!

8/27/2007

I often make the blanket statement, "I HATE reality shows!" and act as if I never watch any of them. Okay, okay, it's simply not true and the ones I choose are not any "better" than the ones you watch. I know that.

The one that currently fascinated me is How Clean Is Your House? on BBC America. They find some filthy dwellings and actually take samples of dirt for analysis for various germs. They find things like salmonella, e.coli, listeria, and other gross bacteria. I've gagged more than once.

I think one of the reasons I like it is that it makes me feel better. My house is not pristine, but it's not that bad. I'm sure Kim and Aggie might disagree.

8/26/2007

E and I were at a play earlier today. It was the closing performance and it was also sold out. We did the stand-by thing and got lucky. Our plan was to do the same for another show at the same theater three hours later.

I was really enjoying the production, which seemed to come to a sudden and quite unsatisfying end. I was only briefly annoyed.

"Oh well, gotta get to that stand-by line," I thought as I bolted from my seat.

Admittedly, I was somewhat perplexed that E was still sitting there, but nevertheless made my way out the front door. There was a kid sitting on a bench outside the door reading.* I looked around and no one else was exiting and I briefly got excited that I'd be first in line!

As I turned and looked back into the lobby, I noticed a big crowd of people at the concession stand. It dawned on me that the play was not over, but merely at intermission. No wonder the ticket guy was giving me that look.

The real conclusion was quite surprising, funny, and extremely satisfying.

*I was fourth in the next line. That bookish kid, his brother, and father were lined up when the play actually ended.

8/24/2007

It's been a pretty crappy week, which has made me quite cranky. Things got a bit better last night though when for the first time in more than a year, I got to see one of my favorite bands. Cecilia Noël & The Wild Clams perform at the Skirball Cultural Center (for free!) to a diverse and excited audience. We used to see Cecilia and her 14 to 17 piece band play monthly at the Key Club, but they haven't been there for quite some time. It was fun to see them play to a crowd that included kids, octogenarians, and people from many ethnic backgrounds.

The cool thing is that almost everyone was up dancing, as that is what Cecilia's intensity and The Clams' music does to you. Even non-dancers, such as E, have to move. Admittedly, there were a few folks who just did not enjoy it. The two elderly women next to us just sat expressionless until they left about two-thirds of the way into the show. And there were the women behind us who decided to stay "for one more song" to see "if it got any better" because it was way too "noisy." Apparently, it didn't improve.

I did get a little sad during the show because it made me miss a friend who has been living in New Zealand for quite a while now. He used to go see the Clams with us frequently and it felt weird not having him there. In spite of that, the energetic show really did lift me out of my funk some. I recommend Cecilia Noël & The Wild Clams to anyone feeling down.

One of the bonuses to seeing Cecilia Noël play live is that quite often her husband, Colin Hay,** joins her on stage. We saw him lurking around in the audience, clapping along to the music and hoped he'd make an appearance. The next to the last song was a rousing version of his "Down Under," which The Wild Clams have gotten down pretty good over the years. That song brought the few remaining sitters to their feet.

So, yeah. A pretty good start to a four-day weekend.* I plan to do some exercising, some organizing, a little socializing, and even some notarizing, not necessarily in that order and definitely not with equal amounts of enthusiasm. I've already been to a yoga class this morning and taken a friend's dog for a long walk in the hills. I'm seeing a nap in my future. Well, another one. There is that awesome little one that you get to take at the end of a yoga class. Looking forward to that gets my stiff, out of shape body through the difficult poses and moves.

*Don't be too jealous. I'll be working when you are at the beach or at a barbecue on Labor Day.

**We discovered Cecilia through Colin. For the past 11 or so years, we've seen him pretty regularly at Largo and she started popping up, singing backing vocals occasionally. One night, he broke a guitar string and had her perform while he regrouped. Even a scaled-down version of what she does, on that tiny little Largo stage, got us out to see her in full swing.

8/21/2007

While hanging out at the Golden Gals Gone Wild exhibit weekend before last, I got to meet one of my favorite bloggers, Will, and his lovely wife Nina. It was hot, crowded and loud so we didn't get to talk much, but it was cool to connect in person. There is even photographic evidence.

E and I were invited to the event to celebrate a friend's birthday. He was late, but we hung out with people waiting for the birthday guy. One friend of ours can never remember my name and called me Donna. His friend thought "Trixie" was more fitting and called me that for the rest of the night. For some reason, I kind of liked it.

While I am short, I am not actually a hobbit or even a little person. I am TWO inches too tall to qualify. E insists I still may be one and if not, I will eventually be with the loss of height that comes with aging. I'll have to deal with that when it comes. Maybe when I grow old I can become a Christmas Midget and bring joy to kids at the holidays.

8/18/2007

Geez. I complain about having nothing to post about. I come up with a somewhat interesting story, type half of it up, and then realize I've already told it. Well, I do have a follow-up at least.

You might recall my post about the very dorky me of 1986. Recently, J & M, my temporary guardians for part of that year, visited Los Angeles with their three children. E and I met up with them at Philippe's in downtown L.A. A good time, and cheap food, was had by all.

True to form, and much to my delight, J & M travel with one of their pink flamingos for photos ops. Here E and I are with J & M and a plastic friend:

8/14/2007

My reemergence into society has been slow over the past few days, but seemingly successful. I'm back to a full 10-hour day of work today and while it does seem like the longest.day.ever, it does feel good in a way.

I took baby steps with a couple of social outings over the past few days. One involved naughty old ladies, another was a reunion of sorts with longtime friends, and the last was a fantastic concert at the Greek Theatre.

I hope to get a chance to write a little bit about each of those things soon.

8/07/2007

8/06/2007

I've succumbed to the sickness so many seemed to contract upon returning from the San Diego Comic-Con. I have no nifty report on fun things I did this weekend because I spent much of it sleeping and trying to fight off the nasty virus that's been plaguing E.

The only bright side of it is that I've had some down time to really dig into the last Harry Potter book. I'm trying to savor it, but can't seem to put it down for too long. Just long enough for those 2-3 hour naps.

8/04/2007

I forgot to mention the nerdiest/geekiest/dorkiest thing I did at this year's Comic-Con. I went with E to the sing-a-long screening of the musical Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling." I'll happily lose a bit of my nerd cred by admitting that I never really got into Buffy The Vampire Slayer, so I'd never seen it. However, 95% of the other people in the room had watched it over and over again. They were belting out the songs with all of their heart. The enthusiasm in the room made it a fun experience.

8/03/2007

Comic-Con was once again an exhausting blast. I'm still reeling a bit from all of the past week-and-a-half. I took the few days before Comic-Con off, which was a good thing. I had really procrastinated in getting ready for the Tired Girl Collective table, that the weekend before the show was a frenzy of button and hamster making. In the midst of manic crafting, all three of the dogs got sick. I fed them something different, and apparently bad, which did not agree with them. My work was interrupted by frequent bathing of the long butt fur two of them have had. After the fifth bath or so, I took scissors and hacked away. It's not pretty, but it had to be done. After a couple of trips to the vet, some medication, and a prescription diet, all seemed better and we determined we could actually leave them, with a friend looking in on them a couple of times a day.

We'd hoped to make it to San Diego before the doors to Preview Night opened, but with traffic and a stop we needed to make in La Jolla, we were a little late. But, we arrived before it was over, which is better than previous years. Frantic set-up ensued and 3/4 of the Tired Girl Collective had a nice, quiet Mexican dinner.

I remember bits and pieces of the next few days, but in some ways it is kind of a blur. Maybe it's like what they say a lot of people's wedding days are like. Having eloped in Vegas with a 7-minute ceremony, I pretty much have a clear memory of that event. Anyway, there was lots of traffic at our table and it seemed like we were all selling pretty well. Sherri noted that it was cool that we all got excited when any of us sold something. And we all talked up each others' merchandise. It was quite a collaborative collective.

I was able to sneak away for two panels and one film. I was skeptical about the 24 panel, as the past season was lackluster. The director and writers/producers who spoke were quite funny though and gave us some insight into what went wrong and how they are working to make it a good show again. No, no Kiefer. I also made it into the Heroes panel only because I ran into Chris and his lovely family and they let me to cut in line. It was lots of fun and I took lots of photos. The film that E and I watched was Big Top Winkle. I've been a Mr. Winkle fan for a long time and was delighted by this charming movie.

Besides the table, the exhibit hall, the panels, etc. Comic-Con always seems to be about friends...old and new. Since starting this blog for a couple of years ago, I have met blog-world friends the past couple of years. I also get to hang out with some people...Jason Ho!...that I don't see very often. Invariably, we run into people that we didn't know were coming.

Comic-Con ended with a flurry of packing, getting the car out of valet (apparently Lou Ferrigno's truck is more important than our car), and driving up to Orange County to see Tears for Fears in concert. I realized that after the 2005 Comic-Con, we also went to their show. They were really good, by the way, and we had amazing seats! We also ran into a friend who had also driven up from Comic-Con, but who we did not see among the thousands of other people.

We returned to San Diego for one more night of sleep. It was so nice to sleep in on Monday as I'd been getting only 3-4 hours a night for over a week. We had a nice lunch at Seaport Village and then went exploring on the USS Midway, a decommissioned aircraft carrier. It was fascinating and took about 3 hours. I will eventually post a few photos from that day.

So, the photos are being uploaded and tagged. I finally opened my Harry Potter book the other night and will probably be savoring it over the next couple of weeks. Sure, I've heard some spoilers, but that was inevitable and I think I'll still enjoy it. Oh, and the dogs are fine.

8/01/2007

I really want to get my Comic-Con photos uploaded to flickr, so I'm scrambling to get other ones up that I've put off for weeks. The set from The Police concert and shots from the Burbank Kwik-E-Mart are now posted. A view of the biggest nerd gathering of the year to follow!